Skirmish over health care: Shea-Porter forum filled with tension

Cheers, jeers and interrupting shouts dominated the town hall meeting on health care reform between Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-NH, and more than 150 constituents Saturday afternoon in Portsmouth.

Michael McCord

Cheers, jeers and interrupting shouts dominated the town hall meeting on health care reform between Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-NH, and more than 150 constituents Saturday afternoon in Portsmouth.

Held for security reasons at the McIntyre Federal Building, Shea-Porter said she expected "a spirited debate" and she was greeted by mostly skeptical questions about the depth and scope of the health care reform proposals — and whether it constituted a revived form of Naziism or a "communist/socialist" plot to ration health care or encourage euthanasia.

"I don't believe it," shouted Jon Dickinson of Portsmouth about the level of political transparency of the debate. Many times during the tension-filled hour Shea-Porter was interrupted by catcalls and those who shouted "answer the question."

Shea-Porter said she wanted to inform people of what she called the consumer-friendly and choice aspects of the reform bill that passed her education and labor committee. "We believe in choices except for health care," she said about the public option plan of the reform proposal which she believes will foster competition and drive down health care costs.

"This is exactly what we wanted to hear," Shea-Porter said after the meeting about the mood of the event. "The questions were tough but we were pleased people showed up."

Questioners for the town hall meeting were chosen by a lottery from ticket stubs given to participants when they entered the venue after passing through a strict security checkpoint. For example, bottled water was not allowed in for fear that it might be used as a projectile.

Most of the questions Shea-Porter was asked questioned the wisdom and logic of health care reform. Mark Brighton of Portsmouth said the influx of more than 46 million uninsured Americans into the health care system would lead to de facto rationing of the medical care.

But Shea-Porter said that private insurance companies were already rationing care and that people with insurance were subsidizing the uninsured who often seek expensive emergency room care.

She also was peppered with questions about the constitutionality of health care reform, taxpayer funding of abortions and whether reform was "being jammed down our throats," as claimed by Diane Bitter of Rye Beach.

Tom Pearson of Rye said that increasing policy options such as full mental health coverage or abolishing caps on annual and lifetime insurance usage would lead to higher premiums and higher costs for everyone.

Shea-Porter disagreed and said the current system was full of waste and fraud and too much private insurance overhead costs for executive bonuses. She added it wasn't geared toward healthier outcomes and preventive care but on the volume of procedures.

"We've already paid for the health care but they (the insurance companies) haven't delivered it to us," said Shea-Porter, who was rewarded with a loud chorus of jeers from opponents and cheers from supporters.

Before the meeting began, Pearson said his extensive reading of the more than 1,000-page bill leads him to conclude that reform is a major step toward the "nationalization of health care."

Pearson said abolishing state insurance mandates and lessening federal influence in health care except to make basic "rules and regulations" would foster a "national pool" that would make insurance affordable for almost all Americans.

Reform "will screw people who aren't being subsidized by the government," he said.

Shea-Porter told one proponent of reform that his small business would be helped by reform because it would increase competition and drive down costs. When another supporter asked her about supporting a single-payer system or the depth of her support for the public option, Shea-Porter said this bill keeps the employer-based, private insurance system in place — and she would "fight" for a public option but would not categorically reject a major reform legislation if it didn't have it.

Julie and Dave Norton of Hampton support reform and would like to see a single-payer plan in place because the current system, they believe, is destroying American economic vitality.

"Companies are sending high-paying jobs overseas because it's cheaper to provide them with health insurance," Dave Nixon said. He added he was disappointed by what he considered the falsehoods about government-run health care systems in other parts of the world.

"You hear all this talk about health care being so bad in Canada or Great Britain, but I know hundreds of Canadians and I don't know one who would trade our system for theirs," said Nixon, who is employed in the telecommunications industry by a Canadian company.

"We need change because anything will be better than the system we have now," said Julie Nixon.

"If people were listening they would have learned about choice and competition," Shea-Porter said of what she hoped to accomplish. She said it was important to give as many people as possible a chance to speak, even if some of the questions were based on what she called "confusion and misinformation" regarding the content in the actual bills being considered by Congress. She said there would be no taxpayer funding of abortion or death panels or rationing in the bill.

"Clearly some people believe (the misinformation) because they are frightened but I encourage them to go to read the bill and to consider other sources," she said. The $1 trillion-over-10-years plan in Congress will continue to be hotly debated when Congress returns from its August recess next month.

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